Zen for Film (1962-64) a film by Nam June Paik. Silent, Colour, 16mm, 8mins. 

Created by Korean-born video artist NAM JUNE PAIK for the Fluxus series, Zen for Film confronts the emptiness of the image and our expectations of art. Over eight minutes, and in an endless loop, the unexposed film runs through the projector, accumulating dust and scratches over time. Zen for Film is not a giving film – it does not ‘give’ the images we wait for and expect, breaking with the incessant pace of the Cult of images, working as antidote to re-presentation. Zen for Film radically uses film to open up an experience – one for contemplation, meditation, a space of radical simplicity and purity where the mind is free to expand – and just be.

Text by Sophie Pinchetti.